IOPC publishes figures on police complaints made during past year

However, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said this increase should be “treated with caution” following “significant changes” made to the complaints system three years ago.

Its annual report on police complaints for England and Wales in 2022/23 published on Thursday (October 5) showed 81,142 complaints were logged during 2022/23, which amounted to 134,952 allegations made overall.

The largest proportion of allegations related to ‘delivery of duties and service’ (55 per cent). The IOPC said these are about service delivery, such as a lack of updates and the speed of responses, rather than concerns about police misconduct.

The next highest proportions were for ‘police powers, policies and procedures’ (20 per cent) and individual behaviours (13 per cent).

While making up only one per cent of the total, ‘discreditable conduct’ allegations logged increased by 19 per cent from 622 in 2021/22 to 743 this year.

Of the complaints, 31,620 were recorded formally – almost 12 per cent less than the previous year.

During the year, 78,725 complaints were finalised (30,521 formally and 48,204 informally) – a nine per cent increase on the previous 12 months.

There was also a sharp increase in complaints from people aged 17 or under, up by 28 per cent this year, although this represented only two per cent of the total number.

The IOPC said: “In February 2020, significant changes were made to the complaints system including widening the definition of a complaint to “any dissatisfaction with the police service”. As a result, more complaints have been logged than in previous years.

“The system also allows for more complaints to be handled informally, where appropriate, such as by an apology or explanation. A person can request a review if they are unhappy with the way their complaint was handled.

“As the new system continues to be embedded across police forces, the data should still be treated as experimental to acknowledge it remains in the testing phase and comparisons with previous years should be treated with caution.”

It added: “A police complaint is an expression of dissatisfaction by a member of the public about the service they have received from a police force. All expressions of dissatisfaction must be logged. Police forces and local policing bodies deal with the majority of complaints.”

The IOPC sets the standards for complaints handling through its statutory guidance.

Forces took an average of five working days to contact a complainant after the complaint was made. This is a four-day improvement on last year. The time taken by forces to finalise informal allegations also dropped from 21 to 16 days this year. Where handled formally, it took forces 159 days to complete allegations on complaint investigations, an increase of 25 on last year.

Of the 74,543 people who complained about the police, just over half (51 per cent) were men. The most common age group to complain were those aged 30-39 (21 per cent).

Fifty five per cent of all complainants were white. The ethnicity of 31 per cent of complainants was unknown and those answering the ethnicity question has decreased by five percentage points compared with last year, the IOPC said.

In total, 51,720 people serving with the police were subject to a complaint – 62 per cent of those men, 80 per cent were white and 14 per cent where the ethnicity was not known.

Of the 30,521 complaints handled formally in 2022/23, just over half (52 per cent) had at least one allegation resulting in an explanation or apology an increase of ten percentage points on the previous year – 40 per cent resulted in no further action being taken, a decrease of eight percentage points.

Of the complaints handled formally, 113 had at least one allegation resulting in either a misconduct meeting or hearing, compared with 68 in 2021/22 and 18 in 2020/21.

“The 113 represents 24 per cent of the 468 formally handled cases subject to special procedures where misconduct proceedings are available as an outcome, a rise from 15 per cent the previous year,” said the IOPC.

The most common action resulting from complaints handled informally was an explanation being given to the complainant (58 per cent of cases) – 21 per cent of complaints handled informally resulted in at least one allegation having no further action.

Of those whose complaint was handled informally, 92 per cent had it resolved to their satisfaction or did not wish to pursue it any further.

Local policing bodies upheld 19 per cent of the 4,093 complaints they reviewed that had not been investigated and 27 per cent (156 out of 574) of those that were investigated.

The IOPC dealt with 1,500 reviews and upheld 44 per cent of those that had not been investigated and 32 per cent of those that had.

Donna Jones, chair of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, said: “The increased number of complaints reflects the public response following high-profile cases involving police officers which impacted public confidence in policing but can also be attributed to improvements in the recording of complaints, and greater transparency around the process.

“While we welcome improvements in the time taken to handle complaints informally, lengthy investigations have an enormous impact on complainants, officers, and confidence in the system. There needs to be a continued focus across the system on improving the time taken to resolve complaints.

“It’s incredibly important that the public has recourse to an open, efficient and timely complaints process which is why police and crime commissioners would also support increased central funding for complaint handling and additional civilian roles to support the increase in frontline policing and demonstrate the sector’s commitment to addressing and improving public confidence.’’